I closed my eyes as I kept walking. I barely even felt him slap me, I was just too cold. Refusing to stop walking to even just look back, I imagined Riku, stuck in the middle of a block of ice, and felt the self-loathing creeping back. There were no footsteps behind me, no more shouts for me; I figured Gildas was trying to help Riku. Good. I could be alone again, with just my thoughts and my black hole for company.
Once in the town square, I picked the tallest shop around, and shimmied up the drainpipe with ease. On the roof, I clambered on top of some strange statue showing whatever goods were for sale, and lay down on my back again. The clouds overhead were gone, the thunder and lightening had stopped, and the night was finally completely clear. Looking up, I felt as though the empty indigo sky was pressing down on me, stopping me from breathing. I closed my eyes tightly, gulped in air, and then opened them again. I decided to focus on the stars instead, twinkling playfully and carelessly, and started to count again. One, two, three…
I watched Haru walk away as I focused my energies on releasing Riku. With my leg in pain, I would have a harder time collecting my thoughts, and it didn’t help that this was (obviously, due to the quality of the ice) a Blizzaja spell of the highest level. This would take a few goes. (Hellfire.) the ice around his foot melted. Was that it? Oh dear. Looks like I’d be here a while. Zexion popped up behind me. “Oh thank god!” he began. “I was so worried!” I winced in pain as he began to hug me, not even noticing the Riku-popsicle in front of me. “Zexion, you used Holy right? Could you possibly try another White spell? Like, Cure maybe? My leg is kinda painful…” He nodded, and knelt down, placing his hand carefully on my leg. “Cure…” He said, calmly, and warmth spread up my leg. In an instant the pain was gone, and in its place was a sense of perfection. He hadn’t just healed my leg, it was good as knew!
It was much easier to focus my thoughts now. (Hellfire.) the ice around his legs totally disappeared. (Hellfire.) his torso was now free. This part would take some sculpting. I focused the fire to a point on my fingertip, and traced it round the outline of his head. Thankfully, I only singed a tiny bit of his hair, and he didn’t notice anyways. “C-c-come on,” he stuttered, obviously still chilled, “We g-gotta find Haru!” I helped him along with a small fire behind him, to warm him up, and we began walking in the direction she’d left in. The lightning had stopped. We found ourselves back in Twilight Town centre, and I looked up. Joy and terror filled me in an instant. To the left, above an Accessory shop lay Haru, her hand in the air, tracing a pattern in the sky. To the right, however, was the one thing I had been dreading. Shiva was at the Clock Tower rooftop. And guess what? So was everyone else. Ramuh threw his arm in my direction, and I saw each Aeon begin to rush in my direction. As they came closer I saw the rage in their eyes… They thought I was Sephiroth.
I traced shapes in the sky, using the stars, but they weren’t real constellations; I had never understood how people got a lion out of about five stars. Everything was nicely quiet, and nobody had intruded on me. Then I heard it; the ferocious beating of wings, the roar of something that was definitely not human. I pulled myself up to a sitting position, and peered over the edge to see Gildas ducking as his aeons flew down. Zexion was flapping his hands wildly, and Riku had pulled his sword back out.
My interest was piqued now. I stood up and slowly walked over to the edge, looking down from above on the scene. Zexion had tugged Gildas backwards, and now Riku was standing in front of them both in an attempt to protect the pair. I sat back down and dangled my legs over the edge, before sliding down and turning, so that I was gripping onto the roof with just my hands. But I had forgotten my injured wrist yet again, and promptly dropped to the floor, where I crumpled in pain on the cold, hard pavement. I was struggling to breathe: it came out in ragged, short pants.
I noted Haru’s heavy breathing to my left, but paid no attention. I was too busy NOT getting frozen by Shiva, and avoiding Titan’s stalactites. (Disintegration.) Zexion flew up to a building on the right, out of harm’s way, totally safe (if a little disorientated). Riku began slicing at Typhoon and I froze his hands, before quickly unfreezing them (just to grab his attention). “Don’t! They don’t understand, they think I’m Sephiroth, if we harm them I lose my powers!” He nodded, and I leapt out of the way of an oncoming lightning bolt. (Disintegration.) Zexion flew to the left, missing a burst of water and landed next to Haru. He got the idea immediately and began to heal Haru’s wounds.
I began freezing the Aeons, one by one. Ifrit was particularly difficult, but after I extinguished the flame on his chest he was like putty in my hands. Typhoon froze easily, and Diablos was just as simple. Soon enough, the only ones left were Neo Bahamut and Shiva. Shiva couldn’t be frozen, I’d have to reason with her, but Neo Bahamut would be a hard one. Thankfully, I could take as long as I wanted: The Aeons could not die as such, they’d just return to the Feymarch, but I didn’t wish to harm them. I tried to be quick as I could.
After a few attempts, Neo Bahamut was subdued. Even then, however, Shiva put up an amazing fight. A damaged monster is a vicious one, or so they say. I begged and pleaded with her, trying to get her to understand. “Please, Shiva! Just look in my eyes!” She encased me in ice, and I didn’t stop her. She walked over to me, angry and limping slightly. She walked, stopping just in front of the ice block that was me, and peered in. parting the ice slightly, she placed her head in the gap and gazed into my eyes, her own a few centimetres away. She looked, long and hard into my eyes, her aquamarine eyes scrutinizing harshly. Then she leapt backwards, shock plain on her face. In a second, I was free, and she dropped to the ground. “Please, forgive me, Master. I did not know…” I laughed, nervously. Shiva unfroze her companions. “Fear not! This is our Master we have been attacking.” All the Aeons bowed their heads. Neo Bahamut was the first to speak. “If those Eidolons hadn’t tricked us…”
Once I could, I waved Zexion away – this was not the time to be worried about a few scratches. I pushed myself to my feet, finally remembering not to put pressure on my wrist, and watched Riku as he stood to the side, looking helpless. Zexion was standing again, and tried to reason with me. “Honestly, it won’t take long, just let me heal you and then I’ll leave you alone.” I shook my head, and walked away from him. What I didn’t realise was that I had walked towards Riku in the process, and he hugged me tightly. I didn’t hug him back. After he had let go, he said to me, “What on earth has been going through your mind?” I just looked at him. How could I answer a question when I didn’t know the answer?
Behind us, Gildas roared. I looked over Riku’s shoulder to see him pacing angrily, tugging at his hair. He looked tortured. Riku strode over to him, dragging me along by the hand. I could hear Zexion sprinting over, and then Riku said, “What’s the matter?” His voice was hard and businesslike; nothing like his usual, soft, melting tone. Gildas span around with his eyes wide. “They…he…Sephiroth!” he spluttered crazily. Zexion walked up to him, and hugged him gently, but Gildas shoved him back, and he fell to the floor. When he looked up, there were tears in his eyes. “Gildas…” he whispered. But Gildas pretended not to have heard.
Couldn’t they see? Couldn’t they understand this at all? Sephiroth had EIDOLONS. This was bad, the worst thing that could possibly happen after him obtaining the Death Note. He was toying with us for sure, otherwise he’d have written our names in, but Eidolons!? The others just stood there calmly, not understanding anything (apart from Zexion, who was now on the floor).
“Eidolons! EIDOLONS!” I bellowed. Haru just stood there, a confused, Misa-ish look on her face. Riku also looked nonplussed. Zexion jumped up, wiping his eyes. “He has Eidolons?” I nodded vigorously. Zexion turned to Haru and Riku. “This is bad,” he begun, “Real bad. Eidolons are like Aeons, almost exactly like them, but there’s a few differences. Aeons form relationships with their Masters. Eidolons are pure attacking machines, they live to battle. Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Titan and Leviathan almost became Eidolons, but their places were taken by Odin, Chocobo, Goblin, Asura and Whyt. If Sephiroth has these Eidolons, Gildas is in big trouble.”
Haru’s confused look didn’t fade. I shot in. “Don’t you see? The Eidolons have met with the Aeons. They tricked the Aeons into believing that I was Sephiroth, because I wasn’t at the Clock Tower. The Eidolons will have reported back to Sephiroth that I have Aeons, and now Sephiroth will up his game. He’s still toying with me, because I’m still alive, but don’t you understand? Now we are ALL in danger! You, Me, Riku, Misa, Zexion, Blank… Where is Blank?” Everyone looked around. Blank was nowhere to be seen.
